[PMB] Mage PVE guide - Luna

Hello! My name is Luna, I am a Mage from the guild Astral Riders. In this guide I will help you to understand the gameplay in PVE content as a Mage and explain all important information about my class. My PVE build is a very common Ice & Lightning combination.

In Astral I use two builds depending on the sector. For lower sector (s2) I use a full dps build. Since sector 3 is a bit harder and requires cc, I use a build with double Icy Grave to help my party members. In this guide I will talk about both builds and I will show you which talents I picked in each one of them. If you don't have a Fountain of Death, choose the build that suits your needs the most! My role in the party is to deal damage as well as crowd control (cc). Also my main buff for the party members is Seal of Health that increases everyone's maximum life, mana and energy by 10%. Mage is a mana class and is based on magical damage. In PVE we use Ice & Lightning builds.

In the patch "Broken Chains", our class received few changes. You can see detailed list of Mages new features below. If you want to read about all changes that the patch 6.0.0 brought us, check out the full patch notes list here!

In 6.0.0 we received a completely new race to play! Pridens are wild predators that can choose their path and join League or Empire. They can also be Mages and thanks to that we have a new race spell!

*New spell* Crow's Wings - Increases your speed by 100% for few seconds and makes you immune to stuns and cc's.

We also got some more changes such as new rubies or general fixes!

*New ruby set*:Electrization. Once you cast your Electric Pulse or Thunderhead, you will receive 1/2/3 stacks of the Electization effect. This buff allows you to cast Thunderbolt instantly 1/2/3 times. This ruby set is great for PVE as it allows us to deal a bit more damage with our instant casting stacks!

*New ruby set*:Glowing Lava. When you receive damage while you are under Stone Barrier or Stone Wall effect, your enemy will receive fire damage back. This ruby did not affect my PVE build at all since mages should not receive damage any in PVE.

*New ruby set*:Frosty Pattern. When your Icy Comet or Icy Meteor hits your enemy, second Icy Comet will be casted on the nearest enemy within 7 yard. The second Icy Comet will stun your enemy for 2 seconds .This ruby set didn't affect my build at all, I've decided not to take it.

The Force points gain after casting Elemental Wrath is now displayed correctly.

The description of Elemental Shield has been fixed.

After resurrection, you receive 1-3 Force points of one of the available elements, and the elemental cycle does not reset.

Lucky One ruby additionally gives a 33/66/100% chance to make your Seal of Health immune to magical dispelling abilities. I always take this ruby for the additional luck, but in PVE there is nothing that can dispel my Seal of Health. Although in PVP this new change might be more useful.

Chains of Ice now freezes the target for 5 seconds instead of 10, but now it does not stand for a control effect and does not fade upon receiving damage. The cooldown duration is 40 seconds.

This post has been edited 22 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:43pm)

When choosing your Mage, you can pick out of 5 races in Allods Online.
The differences between them all are Factions and Racial spells.

LEAGUE - KANIAN
If you choose a Kanian, you will become a Magician! You will fight on the side of the League faction.Focused Mind
Prevents spell casting interruption for 20 seconds.

LEAGUE - ELF
Elf can be an Archmage and their racial ability increases your magical power!Arcane Mastery
Increases Vigor by 30% for casting one spell during 30 seconds.

EMPIRE - XADAGANIAN
Xadaganians are the true fighters of Empire! If you want to become one of them, you will turn into a Specialist!Astral Aegis
Protects an ally with a shield that activates on a physical attack from a 10 yard range, inflicting Astral damage, throwing attacker 15 yards away and knocking them down.

EMPIRE - ARISEN
Arisen, or known also as Zem, can be a Sorcerer.
If you enjoy playing a gloomy, undead race, Arisen will be perfect for you! Astral Arrow
Releases a bolt of Astral energy that inflicts damage and knocks the target down.

NEUTRAL - PRIDEN
Priden Mage is called Spellcaster and this is our new race that came with the patch 6.0.0.
Pridens starts in their own special zone map and can later decide if they want to join League or Empire side.

What are Force Points? This is our most important source of damage dealing. Some of our most powerful spells consumes these points so you need to wait during the battle to use them again. Force Points refills once every minute. On each circle you can see the timer. Maximum amount of points is 5 so make sure you use most of them during that one minute or else you will waste them if you have more than 4.

STAFFStaff is a two-handed weapon. It gives much more mana points, but lacks the resistance statistics.
It is not recommended to use a staff for PVP.

DAGGER + OFFHANDDagger (one-handed weapon and) and Offhand. This combination is the most common around Mages. It is much better for PVP but also can perfectly manage in PVE environment. Offhand gives us resistance statistics that are very useful!

This post has been edited 41 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:49pm)

I use this build in lower sectors of Astral where double CC is not required. I can also use this build in raids. All the talents and rubies are focused on the damage output to achieve best DPS.[Talent calculator]

AT THE START
Always start with buffing up your party with Seal of Health. It is very important to recast it every time someone dies or when the timer is gone.

Use your barriers depending on the enemies you fight with. On packs I use Stone Wall but if I fight a boss that has some magical AOE waves, or frontal AOE etc, I use Elemental Shield.

SINGLE TARGET
The rotation usually depends on our Force Points but I will show you the basic rotation for single target, assuming that we will start the battle with all needed Forces. x3

Keep repeating this rotation until your target is dead. When you are out Force Points, spam:
Until your Force points are back.
Make sure you use Frostbolt and Thunderbolt depending on your casting time reducing charges so that you don't waste seconds on additional cast time:
Northern Lights & Thundering Advantage

Also use your Rupture(If you have) + Elemental Surge whenever the spell is available.
Rupture will decrease the casting time of your Elemental Surge to 3 seconds. This spell you can obtain by having a Psionicist reincarnation. It's not a must but it is a great skill!

When you see your target is below 25% life, use your Shocking Grasp while under Lightning Jolt effect.

AOE PACK
Just like in case of single target rotation, the AOE combination also depends on our Force Points.

By now your pack should be dead. I usually finish single leftovers with simple Shocking Grasp or Frostbolt & Thunderbolt.

This combo usually drags the monsters attention on YOU so make sure you stay behind and if you see them running towards you... &
Use your Reflections or Invisibility until your Tank will catch the aggro back!

This post has been edited 7 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:50pm)

This build is mainly focused on double Icy Grave skill. It is very important in higher sectors to be able to CC two targets. To achieve this, I had to switch few damage and barrier boosting rubies into Icy Grave rubies, but the Talent Tree is exactly the same as in the previous build.[Talent calculator]

AT THE START
Make sure all your party members has your buff Seal of Health!

Make sure you stay behind your party members, away from monsters. Use your Stone Wall to absorb all the physical damage. As you will be the first one to target the monsters with your CC spell, it is important to be under defense effect.

Check all your potions, food and drink before you start the battle!

Target the monster you are suppose to freeze with your Icy Grave. This spell will always begin the battle if you are fighting a pack of enemies.

SINGLE TARGETThe rotation in this build is exactly the same as in the previous one! (see Full DPS build) x3

AOE PACKS
In higher Astral sectors the combat starts with your double Icy Grave skill.
You must freeze two targets and if possible, other party members will stun the rest of the group so that you will fight only one or two monsters. In this case AOE is not recommended as it might dispel all the stuns.

Spells recommended to use on packs are: x3

&
You will be the first one to start the fight so make sure you are ready to use your Reflections or Invisibility if the monsters reaches you before the Tank can pull the aggro!

This post has been edited 9 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:50pm)

Frostbolt
Rank 3
It's a single target spell that inflicts damage. It is one of our main spam skills. Best to use while under "Northern Lights" effect as it decreases the cast time.

Thunderbolt
Rank 3
It is our second main spam skill. Use it together with Frostbolt when you are out of forces. Best to use while under "Thundering Advantage" effect as it decreases the cast time.

Shocking Grasp
Rank 2
Inflicts Lightning damage. Deals 100% more damage if the target's health is below 25%. It is a "finishing" skill.

Icy Comet & Icy Meteor
Rank 3
These are one of our most powerful skills. Icy Comet is a single target spell and Icy Meteor is AoE. They consumes Frost Force points. Use whenever possible and make sure to max the rank of these skills.

Electric Pulse & Thunderhead
Rank 3
Electric Pulse is a single target skill and Thunderhead is AOE spell. They consume Lightning Force points. Use whenever possible! Make sure to max the level of these skills as its one of your main DPS skills!

Elemental Surge
Rank 2
This is a very powerful skill. It consumes Dragon Tears and can be used as single target or AoE skill. Rank 2 is well enough to deal massive amount of damage with this spell!

SLOW AND CROWD CONTROL

Icy Grave
Rank 2
It is our main CC (crowd control) spell. Maxed rank + Rubies will freeze 2 monsters for 1 minute (But at the moment I have only rank 2 so it stuns my enemies for 50 seconds)

Ice Flow
Rank 1
It is slowing your target for 6 seconds by 75%. It also deals damage, but the spell is not very powerful. Use it on monsters that are chasing your party members! Keep this skill rank 1 as it's not very important.

DEFENSE SKILLS

Stone Barrier & Stone Wall
Rank 2
This is our physical barrier. When fighting monsters, this is a must. It will block amount of physical damage dealt by your enemy target. I keep these at rank 2.

Elemental Shield
Rank 2
Absorbs magical damage. It can not be used while under effect of Stone Barrier or Stone Wall.

Reflections
Rank 3
Creates 5 illusions that lasts 15 seconds. Incoming damage will be absorbed and there is a high chance that your casting will not be interrupted. It is a great defensive skill.

OTHER

Seal of Health
Rank 3
This is our main party buff. It increases party members life, mana and energy points by 10%. Its a MUST.

Magical Tactics
Rank 2
Prevents interruption of spell casting and allows you to move around while casting for a period of time. Good to use this skill while casting Elemental Surge so you can direct your wave towards other monsters too.

This post has been edited 12 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:50pm)

Northern Lights
Rank 3
This effect decreases cast time and mana cost of your Frostbolt by 50%, lasts 30 seconds and stacks up to 5 times.

War of the Elements: Icy Lightning
Rank 4
Grants you a 100% chance to build up one additional Lightning Force point and one additional Frost Force point during each Elemental Cycle.

Adherent's Determination
Rank 3
Your Brutality increases by 9.

Intense Cold
Rank 3
Increases your Frost damage dealt by 12%.

Swirling Snow
Rank 3
Whenever you cast Reflection, Stone Barrier, Stone Wall or Elemental Shield, there is a chance to apply 2 more stacks of the effects. Your casting can't be interrupted while you are under this effect.

Master of Intuition
Rank 3
Your Proficiency increases by 6.

Hailstorm
Rank 3
Your Icy Comet and Icy Meteor have a 100% chance to cast an additional Icy Comet at the same target.

Electrization
Rank 3
After casting Electric Pulse or Thunderhead, you receive the Electrization effect that allows instant casting of Thunderbolt. On rank 3, you will be able to cast 3 instant Thunderbolts.

Sage's Intelligence
Rank 3
Your Vigor increases by 9%.

Elemental Wrath
Rank 1
Grants you 5 Force points of each element. May be used only if you have less than 2 Force points of each element.

Stats are points that you can distribute according to your class attributes. You will get points with your Equipment, Potions, Food etc. You can also distribute some points every time you hit the new level of your character. In this section I will list all the statistics and describe what they are for.

BASIC STATS

Vigor - Increases your damage and healing. This is the basic damage stat, but the points comes only from your Equipment items.

Stamina - Increases your health points. Just like in case of Vigor, this stat can only rise with our Equipment items.

OFFENSIVE STATS

Proficiency - Increases our damage by percentage. This is the main damage statistic that should be focused the most. You can increase it with points, gear (glyphs) and potions. Proficiency is very important in all PVE aspects of the game. At late stage of the end-game, this stat should be above 80 points.

Brutality - Increases the damage by certain % per every lost percent of your enemies health. Basically: The lower HP your enemy has, the more damage you will deal. This stat is also very important, but you should aim for around 40 points at late end-game.

Determination - You will get Determination stacks each time you will receive damage. Stacks of Determination will increase your DPS. It is not recommended to invest in Determination in PVE. As a Mage you shouldn't receive damage in PVE at all (It's the tanks role). I keep this stat at 0 points.

Anger - Increases the speed of receiving wound complexity by your enemies. This stat is completely useless in PVE, so don't invest any points in Anger.

Willpower - Gives you immunity for crowd control and stun spells. This stat has no general use in PVE, however it is a very important Statistic for PVP. For PVE I keep this stat as low as possible.

Bloodlust - Heals you back by % of the damage you deal to your targets. Now this is a personal choice: many people keep this statistic at 0, as we have healers and potions to heal us, but some players keeps it around 10-20 points just for a little healing. However, you will need Bloodlust in Mausoleum of Sparks tries (30-40 minimum!)

Tenacity - Decreases the wounding rate. During the longer fights, you will have less chance to receive wound complexity, which means your healer will have a very hard time healing you! This statistic should be kept around 15-20 points, especially for higher Astral sectors.

OTHER STATS

Luck - Increases the chance of dealing critical hits. This is a very important Statistic but it cannot be increased that easly. You can only rise Luck up by: Rubies, Potent Elixirs and Draconic Relics.

Faith - Increases your mana pool. There is nothing to be done with this Stat and it only depends on the type of the Equipment we use.

This post has been edited 21 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:52pm) with the following reason: Last spelling check!

Mage can share their spells with reincarnations. One of them is "Defensive Abilities" which is basically a Stone Barrier and Elemental Shield. The second shared skill is Flash. They are both rank 1.

RECOMENDED REINCARNATION SKILLS
Once you unlock your reincarnation and level it up, you can learn one of its share skills too. As a Mage, there is few spells that I recommend the most from all possibilities!

Rupture - Great for PVE gameplay, I always use this spell before casting my Elemental Surge so it reduces the cast time to 3 seconds!

Telekinetic Pull - Pulls your enemies within a 10 yard radius to one spot. Useful in PVE and PVP!

Fear - Causes your target to run away for 6 seconds.

Holy Shield - Surrounds you with a holy shield that absorbs damage for 6 seconds and dispels most control effects.

I personally go for Rupture in PVE and Fear or Holy Shield in PVP but the choice is entirely up to you!

This post has been edited 8 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:54pm)

Potions are very important in PVE and PVP. They add offensive and defensive points to our stats. Because this is a PVE guide, I will show you which potions I recommend to use in this environment and when!

DAILY CHURCH POTIONS
Everyone can obtain these at Marianne de Ardeur NPC once a day. They last for 4 hours.

POTENT ELIXIRS
Most useful in raids and champion fights. Can be used in higher astral sectors. Potent elixirs increases your stats by 9 and lasts for 2 hours.

OFFENSIVE

Potent elixir of Luck - Increases your luck (Critical damage). Personally my favourite and I use this almost every time I need a potent elixir. When: Astral/Raid/CF/MOS

ALCHEMY POTIONS
Crafted by Alchemists, smaller additional potions that can be used together with Daily Potions or Potent Elixirs.
These potions can be used depending on your need. I usually go with Proficiency Potion if I use Potent elixir of Luck and when I have Daily Church Potions, I go for Brutality one. If you feel like you lack some statistic, you can always help yourself with one of those Alchemy Potions.

This post has been edited 20 times, last edit by "xLunax" (Apr 17th 2015, 3:55pm)